Dice Wars

This Risk-like Flash game has been both a favorite addiction and a source of frustration for me for the last several years. Even though your opponents are computerized and the dice rolls are random, there is plenty of room for strategy and plenty of ways that the game can change up, every time!

Basic Rules and Gameplay

You start out as the purple player in this game, and you get a random number of dice allotted to you, automatically spread out for you over 2 to 5 spaces (at least in my gameplay). (If you don’t like the number of spaces or dice you’re given, you can hit “No” when the game asks you “Do you play this map?” and it will give you another scenario.)

Each round, every player on the map tries to take over other territories from other players. To attack, click your space, and then click the adjacent space you want to try to take over. If the attacker’s dice roll exceeds that of the defender’s dice roll, the attacker gets that space (very Risk-like). With every space you gain, you get access to another die at the end of your turn; those dice are applied randomly to the spaces you control when you click “End Turn.” Luck and chance determine where your extra dice will be placed, so you have to play carefully to outlast your opponents.

The dice stack up on your owned spaces, from 1 measly die all the way to 2 stacks of 4 dice each (the highest you can go). I refer to dice stacks in-game by how many dice are in them–for instance, the 2 stacks of 4 dice I refer to as an “8-stack,” and the 1-die spaces are 1-stacks, etc.

A Typical Game

The following is a funny PowerPoint I put together to show a typical game of Dice Wars, almost turn-by-turn, with funny and real written commentary. My commentary was not recorded audibly because I want this site to be PG-rated. 😛

How Many Players?
I’ve found that I play best in a game with 7 other players, because I like to build my dice empire from the ground up rather than rely on the game to give me either a greatly stacked-up territory or territories of one- and two-dice stacks each. With 7 other people, you can easily take over the smaller territories and then camp out, waiting for the big guys to thrash each other while you build up and build up.

When To Attack and When to Hold Back?
Generally, you can attack an enemy territory and win it if you have a number of dice equal to or greater than what they’ve got defending that territory. For instance, you wouldn’t want to try attacking an 8-stack with a 2-stack, because you have no chance of winning those odds. But you could attack a 4-stack with a 5- or 6-stack, easy. You might not get it, but the chances are greater that you’ll take that territory over.

Turning Your Flank
In most cases, turning your weakest flank to the enemy is a bad idea. Where possible, move your strongest defenders (your 6-, 7-, and 8-stacks) to be your new borderlands–this can be accomplished with some creative arrangement, taking over territories carefully so that you have a smooth line of big dice stacks moving across the map.

Never leave a 1- or 2-stack open where an enemy can just stampede in, unless you’re like me and like to leave a small hole for your enemies to fall in. In my PowerPoint, I left a 1-stack of mine right beside a larger stack belonging to an opponent. That opponent attacked my 1-stack and took it over, but it freed me up to attack back with my 6-stack that had been inaccessible and unusable before. Sometimes, you can tempt opponents to push their luck, and they end up spending down their 8-stack into a much more manageable 5- or 6-stack, which you can then take over with a free 8-stack of yours adjacent to it.